Nicolas Boyer: Giri Giri

In the case of a word acrobat, one would speak of someone being sharp-tongued. For a photographer, however, the appropriate term is still lacking. Boyer’s imagery not only hits the mark with precision but also gets closer to the heart of the matter than the sharpest pen can. The title of his book plays on the Japanese word giri, which denotes a social obligation. Boyer’s Japan cycle is a special masterpiece, for what he stages for the camera is a Japan as seen through the cultural history of Europe - imagined in the guise of exotic remoteness and crafty stereotypes. Boyer’s photographs confront this superficial appearance with the reality on the ground as a clever unmasking. While the view behind the curtain of one’s own imagination can also be oppressive, in Boyer’s work, however, it is infused at the same time with a subtle humor that makes any critique of perception an absolute pleasure.